Old Tiger recalls big Cats Michael Davis
The Age
May 3, 2014 - 2:32PM Michael Green’s first memory of the great rivalry between Richmond and Geelong was from a spot where he would rather not have been - sitting on the bench for the Tigers during the 1967 grand final. He was a fiercely competitive and talented 19-year-old ruckman who had been forced out of the second semi-final because of a shoulder injury.
Although declared fit for the grand final, selectors opted for John Ronaldson ahead of him. Green, a law student from Xavier College who had played for the Tigers’ under 19s and reserves during school holidays, was named 19th man - the sub in today’s speak - and did not even have to remove his dressing gown.
“I did have a very good view of two great sides, although it’s one which I would rather not have had at the time,” said Green, now a successful barrister's clerk.
His office sits in the heart of Melbourne’s busy legal precinct and he controls one of the strongest barrister lists in town. “It’s like being a player agent for barristers,” he laughs. In fact, he is a highly respected member of the legal and wider community. He took a year off at the height of his career to complete his legal studies, something that would cause high dudgeon in the modern era but to which nobody batted an eyelid at the time. “I was just finding it too difficult to juggle the two,” he said.
Before the Tigers’ first match at the MCG this year, Green was inducted as the club’s first hall of fame legend - a measure of the regard Richmond still has for him. Yet publicly, Green hides his light under a bushel. He is not sure yarns about old footballers re-writing their personal histories bring much to the modern table. For the record, he was an extremely good player, a prolific pack mark, appearing in the Richmond premierships of 1967, ’69, ’73 and ’74.
“Perhaps watching from the bench in the first one motivated [me] to play well in finals. I’ve never really thought about it too much,” he said. “A lot of it comes down to luck. In both sport and life, it is often about being in the right place at the right time. It seems unfair when you think someone as gifted as [Swans’ triple Brownlow medallist) Bobby Skilton played in just one final during a brilliant 15-year career.”
Green speaks glowingly of the great Richmond and Geelong teams of his era.
In those days, there was no draft or salary cap, so the two powerful clubs had aggressive recruiting policies. At Richmond, it was the late godfather of the club, Graeme Richmond, ''GR'' as he was simply known, who was the driving force behind getting the best players in the land.
The Tigers first spotted young Green playing in an under-age competition for Mount Waverley. He played for the Richmond thirds in year 11 and the reserves in year 12, but only during school holidays when he was free of sporting commitments at Xavier.
“The Cats in those days were a fantastic side,” Green said. “They were led by Polly Farmer, Billy Goggin and Doug Wade, but they had stars everywhere.
“Farmer changed the shape of the game by using handball as an offensive weapon. In those days, you only used handball as a last resort, when you could not get your kick in. But Farmer would handball 20 metres into open space. His teammates knew where it was going and they would run onto it. We now call it "breaking the lines".
Green said Goggin was a wonderful player, quick and a beautiful stab pass of the ball - an art that has long disappeared from the game. “Everybody tried to kick stabs but not many could. Billy would hit Wade on the chest form 35-40 metres and the ball would not travel above chest height all the way.”
Full-forward Wade was a great kick, a beautiful high mark and aggressive - “something you needed to be when the full-back used to punch the full-forward in the back of the head all day. Wadey would give it back to them.”
As for the Tigers, their centre line of Dick Clay, Bill Barrot and Francis Bourke was tough, talented and uncompromising. “They were all taller and bigger-bodied than the other sides, not unlike the Freo midfielders today.”
Richmond had a host of great players - Royce Hart, Kevin Bartlett, Ian Stewart (after being lured from St Kilda by GR) and Paul Sproule (recruited from Essendon) among them.
Still an avid watcher of the game, Green defers to a man who did not play for the Cats or the Tigers as the one who had the greatest ability to influence a game and his team - legendary Carlton ruckman John Nicholls. “Gary Ablett snr is the best player I’ve seen. But Nicholls had a real presence. Of the more modern brigade, Wayne Carey and perhaps , Michael Voss came close. But there was only one Big Nick."
http://www.smh.com.au/sport/pssst-old-tiger-recalls-big-cats-20140503-zr3uo.html#ixzz30egAGqf2
